Walter Gilman, a mathematics student at Miskatonic University, takes up lodging in Arkham's legend-haunted "Witch House." Before long, the room's weird architecture, dark history and disturbing sounds invade his psyche, and even his friends and fellow students can't help him. Is he going mad, or are his horrifying dreams somehow becoming reality?

Inspired by an academic lecture Lovecraft had attended about the size of the universe, The Dreams in the Witch House uses the supernatural forces of witchcraft and religion to tell a scientific story of dreams and dimensions and differential geometry. Written rather late in HPL's career, it includes many of his favorite themesNew England history and architecture, Arkham and Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon, Elder Things, Yog Sothoth and Nyarlathotepand embodies Lovecraft’s cosmic vision and colossal imagination. After it was published in Weird Tales in 1933, editor Farnsworth Wright asked Lovecraft for permission to adapt it for radio. HPL rejected him outright, saying “What the public considers ‘weirdness’ in drama is rather pitiful or absurd... They are all the sameflat, hackneyed, synthetic, essentially atmosphereless jumbles of conventional shrieks and mutterings, and superficial mechanical situations.” But people have adapted it anyway, including several motion picture versions, and recently the HPLHS’ own Mike Dalager turned the story into a massive rock opera.

Lovecraft's expansive view of the universe is one in which science and magic and religion can all exist simultaneously, interacting with each other in complex, incomprehensible, and often disastrous ways. We hope that if HPL had the chance to settle into an arm chair with a cat on his lap and listen to our treatment of “The Dreams in the Witch House,” he might have felt a bit more hope for the potential of radio drama.

To enhance your listening pleasure, the HPLHS has packed the jewel case for The Dreams in the Witch House with carefully created props that expand the world of the story. You'll have

A page torn from Gilman's notes, with a sketch of the standing stones he found on the mysterious island in the Miskatonic river, mathematical equations, and his attempts to correlate them with the Necronomicon.

An accession card from the Miskatonic University Exhibit Museum, complete with a photo of the remains of Brown Jenkin and notes from scientists attempting to understand them.

A page torn from the transcript of Keziah Mason's 1692 trial for witchcraft.

A 1931 clipping from the Arkham Advertiser, with the story of the demolition of the house and the horrible things found in the wreckage.

For your convenience in feeding your iPod or other player with the appropriate images, we're pleased to provide the cover art for the show. For a high-resolution version, please click on the image to the right.

Some Dark Adventure Radio Theatre fans have asked if we'd make the scripts available so people can read along. So here, for your enjoyment, is a free PDF download of the final recording script of The Dreams in the Witch House. Note: this script is only for use for reading along with Dark Adventure Radio Theatre; no performance of the script may be made without written consent of the HPLHS.

To get your own CD of The Dreams in the Witch House direct from us, the show's creators, click here. Want to hear it immediately? Click here to buy the MP3 download of the show.

Based on the story by H. P. Lovecraft
Radio adaptation by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman
Original music by Troy Sterling Nies
Theme from "The Sleepwalker" by Mike Dalager and Anders Ringman,
from Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera
"Bub-L-Pep Jingle" written by Andrew Leman
arranged and performed by Harald Lindell and Kathleen Demarest
Additional music cues by Reber Clark
Audio engineering by Chris Horvath
Cover and disc illustrations by Darrell Tutchton
Bonus props by Andrew Leman and Sean Branney
Scenic Miniature by Fred Manchento, Jason Voss, and Andrew Leman
Stone Circle Sketch by Martin Schlierkamp
Produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman